**Date:** 7-5-67
**Source:** Unknown
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Negotiations in the URW – UniRoyal strike are scheduled to resume today in Cincinnati for another try at reaching a contract settlement. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is the only one of the big five rubber companies continuing to operate with tire production from its plants assisting the other four companies in filling customers orders under a mutual assistance pact drawn up by the five companies prior to the strike. Sources close to the negotiations said the bargaining has bogged down into a *sticky and confusing* situation with purely local grievances at times blocking the progress toward settlement. While agreements have been reached on several occasions, sources on both sides have become cheery about predicting an early settlement. Economic issues, including pay boosts and details for a union-proposed full-employment or guaranteed annual wage program, continue to dominate the stale-mate, which has made the dispute the longest work stoppage in the history of the industry. Economic pressure would appear to be the greatest on the negotiators, however, despite the financial aid of $1 million lent the URW by Walter Reuther’s United Auto Workers Union with more pledged if required. The $15 a week benefit check for strikers, reduced from $25, for the 54,000 employees off their jobs represents a weekly drain of more than $800,000 on the union’s resources.